in my "off time"

last week was busier than expected. for a few days i did medical interpretation for a physical therapy patient. this pays quite well, but too bad so many indians know english.

i have also been busy doing job applications. i have two major applications i need to finish before this weekend. i need to write a short essay (500 words) on a major current international topic. i'm having a very hard time picking a topic, and unfortunately i can not recycle any old essays becuase they are either obsolete or on domestic topics such as Medicare. i also want to NOT write about India. but i might have to. i also do not want to write about Iraq. but i might have to. perhaps i will write about economic development policies... 500 words is really not much space...

today i began organizing the linen closet. we have sooooooo many indian bedsheets. i have organized the linens into piles on the floor. maybe this afternoon i will have the stamina to put them away.

i have been reading a book called Imperial Hubris this past week. it is VERY good! but kind of scary and i think it gave me a lot of anxiety over the weekend. If you don't know what hubris means, it is not a good trait.

Hopefully Guddu will get his citizenship soon. In preparation, he tried answering a few of the practice questions. Here are his ACTUAL answers:

1. How many stars are there in our flag? 4
   
2. What color are the stars on our flag? BLUE
3. What do the stars on the flag mean? FREEDOM
4. How many stripes are there in the flag? 4
5. What date is the Day of Independence? 4 July (so that's where the "4s" come from!)
6. Independence from whom? The Britishers (just like India!)
7. What country did we fight during the revolutionary war? The Britishers
8. Who was the first president of the United States? George Tenet
9. What do we call a change of the constitution? ???